MATEC Web of Conferences 10 8 , 04001 (2017) DOI: 10.

1051/ matecconf/201710804001
ICMAA 2017

Study of Different Factors Influence on Thermocompressor Performance

Evgeny Blagin , Alexandr Dovgyallo and Dmitry Uglanov

1
Heat engineering department, Samara National Research University, 443086 Samara, Russian Federation

Abstract. This article deals with investigation of different factors influence on thermocompressor. These factors
include regeneration efficiency, dead volume, working frequency, heat transfer coefficient, thermocompressor
diameter and fins application. Calculation shows that most influential factors are regeneration efficiency, dead
volume and diameter. It was also found that fins application is not effective for thermocompressor performance
enhancement.

1 Introduction 3. Time factor which will influence by means of

Thermocompressor (TC) is a device which transform heat
directly to a potential energy of pressure. There are two
principal types of thermocompressors. The first one is
steam control device that uses high-pressure steam,
referred to as motive steam, to induce flow from a lower
pressure steam source and discharge the mixture at an
intermediate pressure [1]. The second one is mechanical
device which represents cylinder where piston moves and
pushes the gas through the regenerator. Regenerator can
be external [2] or integrated into displacer. Such
regenerators can be wired [3] or annular [4].
This article deals with mechanical thermocompressor
with wired regenerator integrated with displacer.
First concept of thermocompressor was introduced by
V. Bush in 1939 [5]. Recent studies of thermocompressor
are pointed on research of compressor with annular
regenerator or thermocompressor operation within
different devices. For example, thermocompressor
operation as a drive for pulse tube was investigated in [6]
and application of thermocompressor for pneumatically
actuated ankle-foot orthosis was investigated in [7].
Thermodynamic analysis of thermocompressor with non-
ideal component characteristics was made in [3].
However it does not take into account temperature
change inside the thermocompressor change.
Investigation of the thermocompressor performance with
non-isothermal chambers was made in [8]. This research
shows significant influence of temperature change on
thermocompressor performance.
The results achieved in [8] raise a question of other
factors influence on thermocompressor performance.
These factors include:
1. Regeneration efficiency.
2. Geometric characteristics (heat exchange area,
length of the cylinder which will affect the piston
velocity and consequently gas flow velocity).
working cycle frequency.
4. Dead volume.
5. Application of heat transfer intensifications such as
cylinder finning.
6. Non-isothermal conditions of chambers walls.
The influence of first 5 factors is investigated in this
article.
Thermocompressor can be used in LNG cryogenic
complexes for LNG cold energy utilization during its
gasification to obtain an increased gas pressure and
decrease costs for its compressing. Cold energy
utilization efficiency are described in [9, 10].
2 Physical model of thermocompressor
and its operation principle
Physically, considered thermocompressor consists of
cylinder with piston-displacer inside. Displacer separates
cold chamber from hot chamber. When piston moves in
direction of chamber. it pushes the working fluid of this
chamber through regenerator into another chamber.
Chambers have a different temperatures which causes
pressure oscillations due to Amontons's Law. Principal
scheme of considered thermocompressor is presented on
Figure 1.
Working cycle of thermocompressor starts from high
dead centre when both valves are closed and volume of
the cold chamber is maximal (point 1). Piston starts to
move downside pushing working fluid through
regenerator to a hot chamber. Due to Amontons's Law of
Pressure-Temperature pressure is increasing because
mean temperature of the working fluid inside the
thermocompressor is increasing. When the pressure is
high enough, output valve opens and working fluid with
given pressure starts to be charged to a customer. When
piston reaches low dead centre, output valve closes (point
3) and working fluid stops to be charged to a customer.

© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
MATEC Web of Conferences 10 8 , 04001 (2017) DOI: 10.1051/ matecconf/201710804001
ICMAA 2017

Piston starts to move upside pushing working fluid back
to a cold chamber. Pressure is decreasing due to decrease
of the mean temperature inside the thermocompressor.
When pressure drops low enough, input valve opens,
charging new portion of working fluid inside the
thermocompressor. Working cycle of thermocompressor
is presented on Figure 2.
Figure 1. Principal scheme of the mechanical
thermocompressor:
1 – thermocompressor shell; 2 – displacer-regenerator shell;
3 – regenerator; 4 – gap; 5 – input valve; 6 – rod;
7 – output valve; A – hot chamber; B – cold chamber.
3 Research of different factors influence
Mathematical model for thermocompressor calculation
was presented in [8]. Thermocompressor delivery and
arithmetic mean temperature deviations was used as
comparison criteria.
3.1 Drive frequency influence on
thermocompressor performance
Change of the thermocompressor drive frequency will
affect the operation of thermocompressor in different
ways. On the one side increase of the working frequency
decreases the heat exchange duration and vice versa. One
the other side increase of the working frequency increases
the velocity of the gas flow and consequently intensify
the heat exchange. Also, increase of the frequency causes
increases of the friction in regenerator and heating of the
gas in both chambers due to this which can cause the
thermocompressor overheating, when pressure inside the
thermocompressor does not drop below the pressure of
input valve opening and input valve does not open. This
effect is called choking of thermocompressor.
The results of modelling for frequency range from 0.1
Hz to 5 Hz is presented in table 2.
Table 2. Thermocompressor drive frequency influence on
thermocompressor performance.

Temperature deviations
TC
TC
Frequency delivery
delivery, Cold Hot
f, Hz per
W chamber chamber
cycle, J
ΔTc, K ΔTh, K
0.1 8.74 87.43 3.21 -3.58

0.3 25.79 85.98 3.95 -4.28

Figure 2. Working cycle of the thermocompressor.
0.5 42.58 85.16 4.44 -4.69
Thermocompressor, investigated in [8] was taken as a
prototype for given research. Its characteristics are 1 83.89 83.89 5.1 -5.63
presented in Table 1.
2 164.8 82.39 5.9 -6.68
Table 1. Characteristics of considered thermocompressor.
3 244.2 81.41 6.41 -7.4

Parameter Value 5 400.2 80.05 7.51 -7.44

Input pressure, Pin 101325

The results of the modelling shows that increase of
Pressure ratio, πtc 1.5 the working frequency negatively influence
thermocompressor delivery in one cycle and temperature
Cold chamber wall temperature Twc, K 100
deviations. However, this influence is rather small (TC
Hot chamber wall temperature Twh, K 300 delivery per cycle is decreased on 8.43% but number of
cycles is increased in a factor of 50). This causes almost
Dead volume of chambers, m3 2,5∙10-4 linear dependency of thermocompressor delivery per unit
of time of working frequency. It allows to make a
Displaceable volume, m3 5∙10-3 conclusion that influence of the working frequency on
Thermocompressor cylinder diameter,
0.15 processes in thermocompressor is negligible and working
m frequency may be high.
Regenerator volume, m3 3,55∙10-3

Frequency, Hz 1 3.2 Geometric characteristics influence of

thermocompressor performance
Working fluid Nitrogen

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MATEC Web of Conferences 10 8 , 04001 (2017) DOI: 10.1051/ matecconf/201710804001
ICMAA 2017

Geometric configuration of thermocompressor will also 3.3 Regeneration efficiency influence on

affect the performance of thermocompressor. Let’s
consider a thermocompressor with constant displaceable
volume. Its geometric configuration then can be
determined by one parameters – its diameter.
Geometric characteristics have a two principle factors
which will influence thermocompressor performance.
The first one is a heat exchange area and increase of the
this area causes better heat exchange and better
thermocompressor delivery. With constant volume heat
exchange area will be determined by sum of side and end
surfaces:
 D2 4 Vh
Fh   ;
4 D
 D 2 4 Vc
Fc   .
4 D
Functions Fh(D) and Fc(D) have a certain minimum
which correspond to a minimal heat exchange area.
Configuration of thermocompressor must be selected so
that diameter of the compressor is differ than diameter
which corresponds to a minimal area.
The second factor is connected with increase of the
piston velocity with increase of thermocompressor
cylinder length. Piston must overcome the longer distance
during the same time so piston velocity as well as gas
flow velocity increases. Effect of the velocity increase is
described above. It should be noted that increase of the
cylinder length causes increase of the displacer length
because it must separate hot chamber from the cold one.
Together, these factors make a complex effect which
is represented in Table 3.
thermocompressor performance
Regenerator is a key element of thermocompressor.
Without it thermocompression is theoretically possible
but it would take much longer time. Regenerator
efficiency shows the degree of chambers temperature
approach to temperatures of the chambers walls. Ideal
regeneration means that gas discharging from regenerator
will have a temperature equal to a temperature of the
corresponding wall. So there will be no heat exchange
between gas and walls because there is no temperature
difference between them. Ideal regeneration is a primary
condition for isothermal model of thermocompressor.
(1)
Non-ideal regeneration means that gas discharging from
regenerator will have a temperature higher (in case of
cold chamber) or lower (in case of hot chamber) than
temperature of the wall. This will cause temperature
change in chambers. The lower regenerator efficiency –
the higher temperature difference will be.
Effect of the regeneration efficiency ηreg influence on
thermocompressor delivery is presented in table 4.
Table 4. Thermocompressor diameter influence on
thermocompressor performance.
Thermocompressor delivery with regeneration
efficiency equal to, J
Diameter
D, m
0.8 0.85 0.9 0.95
0.05 47.84 55.43 63.34 71.45

Table 3. Thermocompressor diameter influence on 0.1 24.96 36.63 49.23 62.37

thermocompressor performance.
0.15 13.65 27.61 43.1 59.38
Temperature deviations
TC 0.2 11.95 26.27 42.25 59
Diameter D, m Cold Hot
delivery, J
chamber chamber 0.25 15.65 29.34 44.4 60.09
ΔTc, K ΔTh, K
0.3 21.19 33.85 47.53 61.65
0.05 84.69 4.98 -4.56

0.1 77.44 9.59 -9.38 Regeneration efficiency is one of the main factors
0.15 73.62 10.5 -12.19 which influence thermocompressor performance.
Decrease of the ηreg value on 15% (from 95% to 80%)
0.18 72.99 10.72 -12.73 causes losses of delivery equal to 77% in case with
diameter equal to 0.15 m. Thermocompressor stops
0.2 73.1 10.65 -12.73
operating properly with low ηreg value lower than 70-75%.
0.25 74.45 10.03 -11.97 Designing of the regenerator with high efficiency is a key
moment during thermocompressor designing.
0.3 76.39 10.01 -12.72

3.4 Heat transfer coefficient influence on

A minimal value of compressor delivery can be seen
and it is caused by proximity of diameter value to a
diameter corresponding to a minimal heat exchange area.
This means that first geometric factor makes a more
significant influence than a second one. Difference
between maximal and minimal values of compressor
delivery here is equal to 13.8%. This means that
geometric factor must be taken into account during
designing of the thermocompressor.
thermocompressor performance
Heat transfer coefficient change influence the heat
exchange intensity between working fluid inside the
chambers and its walls (heat exchange in regenerator is
determined by regeneration efficiency). Unsurprisingly,
the higher value of heat transfer coefficient the more
thermocompressor delivery and vice versa. For given
research deviation of heat transfer coefficient equal to -

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MATEC Web of Conferences 10 8 , 04001 (2017) DOI: 10.1051/ matecconf/201710804001
ICMAA 2017

30%. -20%, -10%, 10%, 20% and 30% were investigated. is presented in Table 6. As it can be seen from the table,
The results of the investigation are presented in Table 5. dead volume almost does not influence temperature
change in cold chamber but it significantly influence
Table 5. Thermocompressor diameter influence on thermocompressor delivery. The value of dead volume
thermocompressor performance.
must be kept as low as possible. Together with
Temperature deviations regeneration efficiency it is one of the most influential
Heat transfer
TC
factors which affects thermocompressor performance.
coefficient Cold Hot
delivery, J
deviation chamber chamber
ΔTc, K ΔTh, K 3.6 Application of finning for heat exchange
0.7α 78.9 7.64 -9.36 intensification

0.8α 80.26 6.98 -8.33 Finning are used in heat engineering for heat exchange
intensification. There are two principal types of fins
0.9α 81.33 6.43 -7.5 location: lateral (Figure 3) and transverse (Figure 4).
Both types of fins serves for increase of the heat
1α 82.27 5.96 -6.82
exchange area. Transverse fins also forms a flow vortexes
1.1α 83.04 5.56 -6.25 between them thus also intensifying heat exchange.
However both types of fins add additional dead volume
1.2α 83.7 5.2 -5.77
inside cylinder. Calculation of the thermocompressor
1.3α 84.28 5.15 -5.35 with both types of fins modelling is presented in Table 7.

Calculation results are corresponds with prediction

made above. However, difference between
thermocompressor deliveries on different regime is rather
small and during designing more attention must be
focused on other issues that heat transfer intensity.

3.5 Dead volume influence on

thermocompressor performance
Table 6. Dead volume influence on thermocompressor
performance.
Figure 3. Cross section of thermocompressor with lateral fins
Temperature deviations
Dead volume TC
Cold Hot
percentage, % delivery, J
chamber chamber
ΔTc, K ΔTh, K
1 83.47 5.96 -6.82

5 82.27 4.94 -5.66

10 76.91 4.49 -5.01

15 70.75 4.25 -4.54 Figure 4. Axial section of thermocompressor with transverse

fins
20 64.29 4.21 -4.39
Table 7. Fins application influence on thermocompressor
25 57.69 4.15 -3.77 performance.

Dead TC
Dead volume is a volume of the thermocompressor which volume, delivery ΔTc, K ΔTh, K
is not included in displaceable volume. Presence of any m3 ,J
dead volume negatively influence the performance
characteristics of thermocompressor because dead No fins 2.5∙10-4 73.6 10.1 -11.1
volume of cold chamber decreases maximal pressure and Lateral 13.5∙10-4 53.1 9.4 -9.1
dead volume of hot chamber increases minimal pressure.
Unfortunately, presence of some dead volume is Transverse 13.3∙10-4 48.7 6.3 -5.8
inevitable because it is caused by thermocompressor
design elements. For example, volume of gas pockets
inside regenerators are dead volume but they are needed Calculation shows that fins application positively
for gas passing through regenerator. influence on temperature differences but increase of the
Influence of the dead volume (not including dead volume compensates potential raise of compressor
regenerator volume) on thermocompressor performance delivery. Conclusion can be made that fins application is

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MATEC Web of Conferences 10 8 , 04001 (2017)
ICMAA 2017
not suitable for thermocompressor performance
enhancement. Lateral fins can be used in case when
piston is made with special form which will «streamline»
the circuit of fins but manufacturing of such piston is
very complicated and thermal expansion must be taken
into account.
4 Conclusion
This article deals with estimation of different factors
influence on thermocompressor performance. These
factors include:
 Regeneration efficiency.
 Thermocompressor diameter.
 Working frequency.
 Dead volume.
 Heat transfer coefficient deviation.
 Fins application.
The two most influential factors are regeneration
efficiency and dead volume. Decrease of the regeneration
efficiency on 15% can cause decrease of the compressor
delivery up to 77% (in case with thermocompressor
diameter equal to 0.15 m). Increase of the dead volume
percentage from 1% to 20% causes decrease of the
compressor delivery equal to 22.98%.
Heat exchange area of the thermocompressor depends
on its diameter and this dependency has minimal value.
During designing, diameter of the thermocompressor
must be chosen in such manner to avoid this minimal
value.
Application of fins is not effective way to increase
thermocompressor performance because increase of the
dead volume due to fin application is more significant
factor than intensification of heat exchange. In case of
vertical fin, special displacer can be designed which will
fill the space between fins, but it leads to a significant
complications in displacer design.
The results of this work can be used during
thermocompressor design optimization for receiving a
better delivery. Optimization will results in operation
costs decrease which is important part of energy saving.
Acknowledgement
DOI: 10.1051/ matecconf/201710804001
This work was supported by the Ministry of Education
and Science of the Russian Federation in the framework
of the implementation of the Program «Research and
development on priority directions of scientific-
technological complex of Russia for 2014– 2020».
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